Antonides, Henricus (1546-1614)

Henricus Antonides (Hendrik Anthonieszoon van der Linden, also called Nerdaenus, after Naarden, his birthplace in the Netherlands) was born 13 February 1546 and died 14 March 1614 at Franeker. He was a Roman monk until about 1563, was banned after his abdication, stayed in East Friesland where perhaps in 1573 he became a Reformed pastor at Dijkhuizen, then at Enkhuizen, Holland, in January 1579, and when the university at Franeker opened in 1585, he became a professor in theology there. He was an opponent of the Mennonites. He apparently studied the "heresies" of Menno Simons; in 1587 he had a debate at Loosdrecht with a certain Mennonite preacher named Cornelius. In East Friesland he also caused the Mennonites trouble. A planned debate with Pieter van Ceulen was not held. He incited his students against the Mennonites and attacked them in his lectures and in his university sermons. One of his students was Johannes Bogerman Antonides also attacked Mennonites with his pen: in 1576 in his Elenchus Anabaptisticus, and in 1589 in three Latin lectures. In 1589 the Reformed Synod of Bolsward commissioned him to publish a new edition of Menno's Fundamentboek and to provide it with comments. However, nothing came of this.